e) The development of local community

1. Promotion of cultural enrichment, to extend interest for local cultural activities.


These two goals are closely connected. They are being achieved by attracting all interested users and publishing a wide range of materials within the city and region directories (�Welcome to Voronezh� and �The Central Black Soil Region�). These big directories hold information on the city and area history and culture, feature important economic facts and event calendar, etc. All materials are timely updated to ensure awareness of the local community of upcoming cultural events. We have 18 personal pages created by Voronezh artists, poets, philosophers and other people of creative professions. Due to Internet capabilities, all this information may be reached anywhere in the world within seconds and thus awake interest to Voronezh culture in most remote places that otherwise wouldn�t have known of Voronehz. This opportunity to present Voronezh culture to the world greatly assists local culture�s further enrichment and development as cultures develop through �dialoging� with each other. Cross-cultural dialogs benefit local cultures and help to form the world�s multinational culture in the end.

2. Providing telecommunication services and help coordination between regional information services.


This goal perfectly coincides with our �dialog policy�. As we have stated in the project proposal, the Civic Network project was meant to compensate for the existing communication vacuum and provide its technical resources to the maximum possible number of community members and institutions. This is supposed to assist faster forming of civic society�s structures in Voronezh and area. Approaching this goal, we plan to hold a big press-conference along with the �Alliance�, the municipal association of public institutions, in the nearest future. We maintain constant contacts with mass media, various clubs, unions, and representatives of various congregations.

3. Increasing efficiency of interaction between the local government and local population


Currently we are discussing participation of the Civic Network project in work of the Municipal administration Internet Hot Line service. We plan to support the �grass-root� initiatives and protect the population�s interest. As an example of such cooperation in the past, we can address the environmental project that we carried out jointly with radio station �Diapazon�. We managed to protect the park areas in the downtown city that were planned to be destroyed and the land was supposed to be used for construction of some new buildings. The problem of the environmental safety is one of the most serious problems currently in Voronezh. Our efforts brought the government�s attention to the problem of parks and even led to development of a new regulation at the municipal level.

4. Extending educational opportunities

• �Web Lab� program. Currently, Civic Networks provide two hours of Internet for VREAC�s visitors daily which will soon be changed to an unlimited access via a leased line. The PAP at VREAC seats 4 visitor simultaneously. Besides, with the help of the Civic Networks programs officers, VREAC designed and published a web site called �Virtual Adviser�, which turned out to be a very efficient tool helping to get to the bottom of international education �technology�. It is especially beneficial for those people who cannot attend consultations in person. The site is regularly updated, has a listserv and news delivery and practically can substitute an adviser by featuring all advising materials that are available at VREAC. It has been visited by more than 1400 persons so far for 4 months.
• �Become an exchange student� program. VREAC offers information and application forms on more than 40 annual European and American government-supported educational programs. Advisers constantly update the information on those, consult on proposal writing and assist program officers in testing and advertising their programs in Voronezh.
• �Find your university� program. Visitors learn in what respect European or American education systems are different from Russian and are advised on issues relative to individual placement to colleges. They are taught to work with college directories, university web sides and catalogs, find necessary information about education opportunities in their respective fields, and, as a result, evaluate their own chances to be admitted. Visitors learn to write college information requests, fill out application forms, apply for financial aid. Upon receiving information from colleges, educational advisors help to select the most adequate program in every particular case.
• �Resource Base� program. VREAC�s reading hall houses test preparation textbooks, audio and video materials, computer-based training programs. Test preparation courses are very expensive for the students. Usual monthly income of an average student will not be enough to cover one half of a book�s price. Therefore, students are very excited to get access to these books in Voronezh.
• �Test orientation� program. VREAC provides orientations on standardized admission tests � TOEFL, GMAT, GRE, SAT, MCAT, LSAT, etc. Visitors are offered: assessment of their English proficiency through diagnostic testing, information on the standard test formats and contents, standard test writing practice, individual score improvement recommendations from teaching specialists, lectures and individual consultations.

1. Improving the quality of health services


Currently, our project cooperates with Voronezh Regional Clinical Diagnostic Center, which is a unique institution in the region by organizing public health services on the basis of a wide range of medical services in the field of diagnostics, that as is known as a key factor in any disease treatment and prevention of any kinds of diseases.

Civnet provides Internet access for the local network of the Diagnostic Center consisting of 39 linked computers. That network can be accessed by the employees of the diagnostic center as well as other city medical experts.

The qualification level of the diagnostic center�s analysts is so high, that the center is housing the All-Russian diagnostic expert preparation courses in various branches of medicine and especially in sphere of ultrasonic diagnostics for a long time function. A task of our project with regards to the Diagnostic Center is assisting connections between the medical specialists of the diagnostic center and students of the courses. Having access to a network, which is provided by the Civnet, offers a unique opportunity of receiving the necessary information about the latest achievements and the most advanced methods in their appropriate specialization areas. Besides, they may timely receive the specialized information on various spheres of medical diagnostics.

Civnet�s Central PAP is used by by the employees of the Regional Center of

AIDS prevention and diagnostics.

2. Establishing contacts and partnership relations with other regions

6. issues and problems :

• Dramatic raise in the number of visitors of the Central Public Access Point Facility clearly revealed the necessity of funding for purchase of more workstations and Internet class computer upgrade.
• Absence of technical means necessary to connect Civnet�s public access points to the Main Public Access Point (OCTAL CABLE KIT).
• Absence of necessary technical equipment prevents many public institutions from opening PAPs on their own basis.

6. training activities and number of individuals trained:

• 431 persons have received training in �Basic Internet navigation skills� during the report period.

h) total number of seminars, presentations (workshops, consultations, programs)
 
 

The name of activity	Total  number of  people	Men	Women	Additional comments
January Seminar on the project development status	22	12	10	Working seminar. Planning and regulation of joint activities
January Civnet presentation	32	19	13	Wide media coverage
February 7-11, 2000 � the seminar " Quality Election Reporting", organized by the �homson's Foundation for the 12 representatives of the regional MASS-MEDIA				The ideas of the project and the first steps of its development were reported at the following seminars and conferences
February 17, 2000 � the legal training seminar "Law and MASS-MEDIA: managing legal safety for the journalists " (journalists from Lipetsk, Belgorod, Ryazan and Voronezh regions took part in the seminar)
February 25, 2000 � the seminar of the grants distributing projects accountants, organized by the experts of the southern branch of the Eurasia Foundation
March 28, 2000 � the training seminar on rules of access to the information in courts organized by the Regional Foundation "Mass Media Defense Center", Central Black Soil Region of Russia together with the representatives of the Helsinki Human Rights Fund.
February Seminar for the project officers	26	8	18	Working seminar. Planning and regulation of joint activities
The fist regional forum of young journalists �Journalist of the 21st century� (Kursk)	Media representatives from 7 regions of the Black Soil region 150	58	92	Report of the director of the Mass media defense foundation, Galina Arapova (project officer)
Research-methodological conference �New educational technologies and use of global network�	28	17	11	Report of the Civnet project director, V. G. Yurasov
(03/28/2000) Conference �Hundred days of Voronezh Civnet. Prospects and results�. Report of the Civnet project coordinator, Lubov� Grigorieva	36	15	18	The participants of the conference presented a number of useful proposals, concerning the future prospects of the Voronezh Civil Network.
Seminar for the project participants on the project capabilities.	26	12	11	The plans for joint activities were discussed
Presentation of the PAP located at the Regional Juvenile library	28	5	23	The presentation was carried out by the Civnet project coordinator, Lubov� Grigorieva, a greetings letter was received from Italy.
Research-practical conference �State-operated regional libraries. Traditions and prospects.�	97	44	53	Report on the project goals and objectives of the Civnet project officer, Tatiana Zhukova
Seminar �Open lesson�	27	2	6	Training seminar
Seminar for the users of Civnet	32	15	17	The plans for joint activities were discussed
Seminar with participation of a delegation of Christian youth of. Kemnitz (Germany)	120	55	60	Report on the project goals and objectives. The perspectives of interaction between youth organizations of Germany and our city were discussed with information support of our network.
Seminar for the employees of Regional Juvenile library	21	-	21	Training seminar
(10/ 03/2000) Project coordinator Lubov� Grigorieva made a report under the title of �Cooperation with international projects�	255	103	152	Third International Education Fair in Voronezh
(10/06/2000) Project officers organized a conference for the Civnet users	58	20	28	Further plans, prospects of the project development, and organizational issues were discussed
(10/20/2000) Civnet project officer, Tatiana Zhukova presented a paper under the title �Advantages of Applying the Internet in the Non-book Library Departments�	25	-	25	Voronezh Regional Advanced Librarian Training Courses
(12/19/2000) Project officers have taken active part in the municipal fair of youth organizations.				The information about the project was distributed

 

7. Activities to be conducted during the next quarterly report period (summary only).

• Continuation of cooperation with mass media for the purpose of establishing new contacts and maintaining the already established contacts with various public institutions, organizations and individuals, interested in the project.
• Arrangement of seminars, conferences, discussions, and meetings aimed at communicating the project activities to the public.
• Providing support to the civic network technical infrastructure.
• Opening new public access points.
• Administration and maintenance of the Main PAP facility.
• Regular collection of the information for updating resources on the Voronezh Civic Network. Administration of the web-server "Voronezh Civic Network" (information update and technical maintenance).
• Providing consultations and methodological support to local communities on networking. Arrangement of training sessions.
• Arrangement and direction of interactive discussions on most crucial problems of our city and region, and most interesting aspects of the city life on the server "Voronezh Civic Network".

• Attracting new grants for further VCN development.

Vladislav Yurasov,
PI of VCN
e-mail: [email protected]